40 Year Itch: Bowie's St Valentine's Day Massacre

[Purchase Aladdin Sane]

  With the likes of Truman Capote, Salvador Dali and Todd Rundgren in the audience, David Bowie took the Radio City Music Hall stage to perform an unforgettable sold out concert on Februaru 14, 1973. It was unforgettable alright.

After a fan leaped on stage to embrace Ziggy during "Rock And Roll Suicide", Bowie fainted. Some people thought it was part of the act. Others could swear they heard gunshots. But those who have listened to the concert bootleg, St Valentine's Day Massacre, couldn't hear anything like that.


     An attending nurse blamed the ordeal on exhaustion. Someone with a medical degree added that Bowie's blocked up pores from all that Ziggy Stardust make-up probably didn;t help matters. David Bowie slept for 12 hours straight and performed again the next night.

SET LIST
1. Ode to Joy (Introduction)
2. Hang Onto Yourself
3. Ziggy Stardust
4. Changes
5. Soul Love
6. John I'm Only Dancing
7. Moonage Daydream
8. Five Years
9. Space Oddity
10. My Death
11. Watch That Man
12. Drive-In Saturday
13.Aladdin Sane
14 Panic in Detroit
15 Cracked Actor
16 The Width of a Circle
17. Time
18. The Prettiest Star
19. Let's Spend The Night Together
20. The Jean Genie
21. Suffragette City
22. Rock N Roll Suicide

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40 Year Itch : The Lost Jean Genie Performance

On January 3rd, 1973, David Bowie recorded this performance of "The Jean Genie" live to air the following night on the BBC's "Top of the Pops". Check out Mick Ronson's extended guitar solo and Bowie's extended harmonica solo! Tapes of the show had been wiped and the video was lost for decades before the only man with a copy, cameraman John Henshall (whose fish-eye lens shots are used several times here),  made it available for the BBC to re-air in 2011, much to the delight of rock fans worldwide.

 

"The Jean Genie", featuring its dirty Bo Diddley riff and lyrics that may be about Iggy Pop, was released November 24, 1972 and peaked at #2 in the UK but only #71 in the US. The Sweet's "Blockbuster", released in January of 1973, shares the same beat and heavy guitar sound. But both Bowie and Sweet have all agreed it was coincidence.
     Songwriter Nicky Chinn described a meeting with Bowie at which the latter "looked at me completely deadpan and said 'Cunt!' And then he got up and gave me a hug and said, 'Congratulations...' After all "Blockbuster" went #1.

 

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40 Year Itch: David Bowie Writes "Time"

[Purchase]

David Bowie performed two concerts in New Orleans in mid November. The first was uptown, November 14 at the Jesuit university, Loyola, which always had a better meal plan than Tulane University across the street. The second was November 22 at The Warehouse downtown, where Jim Morrison performed his last show with The Doors and where a friend of mine made out with a shockingly beautiful girl at a 1982 Talking Heads concert and discovered she was a he. It was sometime during this week that he wrote "Time" which would greatly benefit from the piano theatrics of Mike Garson when it was recorded a month later at Trident Studios.

The song is best known for its line : "Time; He flexes like a whore/ Falls wanking to the floor". RCA was fine with the masturbation imagery but removed the line "in quaaludes and red wine" from the US single. Not a big fan of the cabaret theatrics of Bowie, I like other things on 1973's Aladdin Sane a great deal more ( "Panic In Detroit", "The Jean Genie", "Cracked Actor").

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40 Year Itch All The Young Dudes

[Purchase]


Mott The Hoople had practically thrown in the towel for reasons previously discussed when bassist Pete Overend got a call from David Bowie offering Mott  "Suffragette City". Hours after Overend idiotically declined, Bowie called back with a new song he had written, a glam rock anthem that would revive Mott.  The single "All The Young Dudes" was released in July of 1972 and  peaked at #3 in the UK and #37 in the US.

On September 8, 1972 the Bowie produced album All The Young Dudes, one of my favorite albums of all time, was released. I knew nothing of Bowie swooping in to save the band. I just heard greatness.I found a cassette copy of the album in a Reno pawn shop. There was no case. No cover. I made my own cover using the bubblegum card photo of Elvis sailing.

Well, it is better than the album cover Mott used.And surprisingly, not that different from the originally planned cover photo -shot by Mick Rock. It might have been one of the seminal rock n roll photos of all time had it been used. No one from Mick to Ian Hunter can remember why it wasn't.

All The Young Dudes has one of the greatest A sides in rock history. It's also extremely sexual with sadists, evil mothers, schoolgirls in need of "reincelibation", a black man's balls and a singer who's been wanting to do "this" for years.

    It kicks off with a cover of the Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane" written by Lou Reed who was also in the process of getting a make-over from Bowie. The result would be Transformer and  the single "Walk On The Wild Side".



Love the second cut, "Momma's Little Jewel", with its false beginning ( that's Bowie supposedly saying "Don't stop ...No...Carry on" and playing the dissonant sax at the end) and made up word: "Don't know why but I'm gonna try/ to reincelibate you ".



That's followed by the glorious title track and then another favorite of mine, "Sucker" , with its opening line " Hi there, your friendly neighborhood sadist want to take you for a ride".



The great "A" side ends with "Jerkin' Crocus", the Sticky Fingered tale of an aggressive "nads puller". There's the oft quoted line "I know what you want, just a lick from an ice cream cone." Jesus the riffs on this one!



It's a shame Side Two can't keep up the momentum. It's probably mostly noted for the single "One Of The Boys" and the first appearance of "Ready For Love" which Mick Ralphs would take with him when he joined Bad Company after 1973's classic Mott. Yes, a lot of fans say the best was yet to come for Mott The Hoople but All The Young Dudes will always be my favorite.

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40 Year Itch: Oh Lordy! Oh Lordy!

On September 1, 1972 David Bowie released the single "John, I'm Only Dancing". A gay anthem? It never struck me as such in my teenage years. I figured Bowie was dancing with John's girlfriend and explaining to his mate "we're only dancing". But because of the supposed subject matter, the song didn't get played in the US even as Bowie strutted onstage in full Ziggy Stardust mode, drawing full houses for his concert tour.

 In the UK, the single peaked at #12 as would the 1979 sequel "John, I'm Only Dancing ( again)". Queen stole the strumming guitar intro for "Crazy Thing Called Love". Trevor Bolder is playing the walking bass lines. The official video, seen below, was banned for its sexually suggestive dancers.


 

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Peter Murphy's All Time Top 10

From SMASH HITS JUNE 24, 1982 courtesy of Brian at Like Punk Never Happened

Peter Murphy provided this list for Smash Hits around the same time the single "Spirit" had charted. The forthcoming album The Sky's Gone Out featured covers of Brian Eno ( "Third Uncle") and, as a bonus track, David Bowie ("Ziggy Stardust") which may explain why those artists show up twice on this list.




   1. DAVID BOWIE The Bewlay Brothers - The lyrics are abstract but they convey something special to me
2. SCOTT WALKER If You Go Away- A very haunting love song beautifully sung

3. JACQUES BREL My Death- The lyrics are really strange.  They're also very moving because it celebrates death (which is how I think it should be approached because it's a rebirth.
4. JOHN LENNON Working Class Hero- I just totally agree with the lyrics.
5. THE BEATLES Within You Without You- It's a great psychedelic dance and it's way ahead of its time
6. BRIAN ENO Sparrow Fall Part Three- This conveys more in its simplicity than many songs manage in all their complexity
7. PATTI SMITH Horses- It's a strong poem set perfectly to music. Patti Smith sings like she's possessed and sometimes she goes into hysterical, indecipherable sections which amaze me



8. MARC BOLAN Life's A Gas- It's really sad when you think of him not being here anymore. And this is nice to remember him by
9. DAVID BOWIE All The Madmen- "And I'd rather play here with all the madmen for I am quite content they are all as sane as me."
10. DAVID BYRNE AND BRIAN ENO The Jezebel Spirit- This is set to a recording of an exorcism. It's very interesting.

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40 Year Itch: Like A Leper Messiah

[Purchase]


"I fell for Ziggy too. It was quite easy to become obsessed night and day with the character. I became Ziggy Stardust. David Bowie went totally out the window. Everybody was convincing me that I was a Messiah, especially on that first American tour (late 1972). I got hopelessly lost in the fantasy." - David Bowie ( 1976)

With The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, released June 6th , 1972, we can all witness David Bowie making love to his ego. Or is it his alter ego?




1972's best release ( there, I've said it) is a concept album and a statement about Bowie's own conflicted desire for stardom. The earth has five years left. (suggesting 1977, the year punk broke out, would be a pivotal year) Doom is at hand when a space invader arrives and offers salvation. To spread his message Ziggy Stardust becomes an androgynous rock star and takes the stage with The Spiders From Mars. But stardom lasts little longer than a cigarette and Ziggy's downfall ends on stage in a rock and roll suicide.

"At this point I had a passion for the idea of a rock star as meteor and the whole idea of The Who's line 'Hope I die before I get old'. At that youthful age you cannot believe that you'll lose the ability to be this enthusiastic and all-knowing about the world, life and experience. You think you've probably discovered all the secrets to life. Rock n Roll Suicide was a declaration of the end of the effect of being young"-DB

Bowie created his own myth and The Rise and Fall is its bible. If his band really was The Spiders From Mars then surely Bowie was Ziggy Stardust, a combination of Iggy Pop, Marc Bolan and Brit rockabilly star Vince Taylor who once confided to Bowie that he knew where all the UFOs were going to land.

"He was the inspiration for Ziggy. Vince Taylor was a rock n roll star from the Sixties who was slowly going crazy. Finally, he fired his band and went on-stage one night in a white sheet. He told the audience to rejoice, that he was Jesus. They put him away." DB


 
                 outtake from album cover photo shoot

When he began recording Ziggy, Bowie was at the height of his creative powers. Just weeks after Hunky Dory's release, Bowie knocked out the cover of Ron Davies's "It Ain't Easy " in September of 1971. November proved more fruitful with "Hang on to Yourself", "Ziggy Stardust", "Rock 'n' Roll Star" (later shortened to "Star"), "Moonage Daydream", "Soul Love", "Lady Stardust", and "Five Years". "Starman", "Suffragette City", and "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" were all recorded in early '72.

Mick Ronson leads the band with his jet fueled guitar lines. Listen to his call and response to Bowie's lyrics on "Moonage Daydream" and then witness the string arrangements he helped Bowie write.

5 Interesting Facts About The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust

1. Ziggy came from the name of a London tailor's shop, Ziggy's,  and reminded Bowie of Iggy Pop. Stardust came from Bowie's label mate "The Legendary Stardust Cowboy" whose novelty song "Paralysed" Bowie had been obsessed with.

2. Echo and The Bunnymen's Ian McCulloch remembers Bowie's performance of the album single "Starman"on The Old Grey Whistle Test (seen below) as life affirming:

  'In 1972, I’d get girls on the bus saying to me, "eh la, have you got lippy on?", or "are you a boy or a girl?" Until he turned up it was a nightmare. All my other mates at school would say, ‘Did you see that bloke on Top Of The Pops?’ He’s a right faggot, him!’ And I remember thinking, ‘You pillocks’, as they’d all be buying their Elton John albums, and Yessongs and all that crap. It made me feel cooler.’


  3. The Sweet wrote a parody of Ziggy Stardust and the song Star called Rock And Roll Disgrace:
 You're a heterosexual dream/ a super phallic machine/ Well who do you think you are?/ Well you think you're a star yeah a rock and roll star, you are





  4. The prominent K. West sign seen on the cover has nothing to do with Kanye West of course. It was the name of a distribution company which shipped animal furs.

 5. Bowie used his new level of stardom to produce three consecutive classic albums for other rockers: Mott The Hoople's All The Young Dudes (1972), Lou Reed's Transformer (1972)and Iggy Pop's Raw Power (1973).

                                                         Megan Fox with Ziggy Stadust

for more great facts about David Bowie and his Ziggy Stardust era check out this website.

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40 Years Ago Today: Mott The Hoople Break Up ( Or Do They?)

[Purchase Brain Capers]

It happens more often than we'd like to remember. Great bands end not with a bang but with a whimper. And so it would have been for Mott The Hoople. On March 26, 1972 Ian Hunter and the boys decided to call it quits. Had it not been for David Bowie, Mott's last album would have been Brain Capers ( a hard rocking effort that kicks off with  "Death May Be Your Santa Claus") and their last single would have been their cover of Danny Whitten and Neil Young's "Downtown" ( aka "C'mon Baby Let's Go Downtown") which features the lead vocals of not Ian Hunter but Mick Ralphs.



It was, of course, a huge flop! But by then, so was Mott The Hoople. They rocked as hard as ever but that didn't translate in ticket or record sales. They were actually losing money on tour. In Zurich they landed a gig at a club that was once a huge gas holder As Ian Hunter remarked "If this is fame, then forget it."

When they returned to England the band members set off in their own directions with Overend Watts calling up David Bowie to see if he needed a bassist. Bowie, who had once offered Mott "Suffragette City", got the band together and played them a new song he'd written. That song was "All The Young Dudes" and it would not only revive Mott's career but would make them one of the biggest rock n roll acts in the mid-70's.

I'll post a whole lot more on  Mott The Hoople  on September 8, the 40th anniversary of All The Young Dudes.

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40 Years Ago This Week: Bowie Performs Queen Bitch on The Whistle Test

The Man who Sold The World ...By Turning Himself "Into a Bizarre Self Constructed Freak" with Mick Ronson in gold lame. Ziggy Stardust is fewer than four months away.

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Nick Rhodes ( Duran Duran) Picks Top 10 ( 1981)

Duran Duran keyboardist Nick Rhodes made this list for the April 2nd, 1981 issue of Smash Hits weeks before the release of the band's debut album. This list is courtesy of Like Punk Never Happened 


1. Talking Heads : Remain in Light - my favourite album; I especially like "The Overload" and all the rhythm tracks.
2. David Bowie "Win" ( from Young Americans)- With the Station to Station and Heroes albums coming close behind. I also like "My Death" from a bootleg as well.
3. Brian Eno: "R.A.F" ( B-side to "King's Lead Hat") -  How did I narrow down the Eno tracks to this one ? Probably because I like the sounds of it - and Snatch are on it too!
4. Yellow Magic Orchestra: "Nice Age" - A great pop song!
5. Roxy Music: "Sentimental Fool" (from Siren)- One of the hardest decisions of my life, but "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" is still my favourite title.
6. Giorgio Moroder: "The Chase" ( from Midnight Express soundtrack) - Love the drum sound and the sequencer.
7. Joel Grey: " Mein Herr" - From the soundtrack to "Cabaret". Makes a change from the rest of raucous rabble; reminds me of the bit in the film.
8. Marianne Faithful: "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan"  - The best track on a Great Forgotten Album of Our Time.( Broken English, released two years earlier)
9. Siouxsie and the Banshees: "Israel" - One of their many classic singles. Great guitar sound.
10. Sparks: "Tryouts for the Human Race" ( from No 1 in Heaven) : Always had a soft spot for Sparks and they just managed to edge out Peter Gabriel, Grace Jones, Syd Barrett, Lou Reed, Kate Bush, The  Doors and Kraftwerk.

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40 Years Ago This Month: David Bowie Announces "I'm gay"

Why let being married and having a son get in the way of making a big splash?

In an interview for the January 22, 1972 issue of Melody Maker David Bowie told interviewer Michael Watts "I'm gay and always have been."





David's present image is to come on like a swishy queen, a gorgeously effeminate boy. He's as camp as a row of tents, with his limp hand and trolling vocabulary. "I'm gay," he says, "and always have been, even when I was David Jones." But there's a sly jollity about how he says it, a secret smile at the corners of his mouth. He knows that in these times it's permissible to act like a male tart, and that to shock and outrage, which pop has always striven to do throughout it's history, is a ballsbreaking process. And if he's not an outrage, he is, at the least, an amusement. The expression of his sexual ambivalence establishes a fascinating game: is he, or isn't he?
-Michael Watts, Melody Maker

If the gesture was meant to shock Bowie's waning career back to life, it worked. The press had a feeding frenzy and kids raced into the store to buy Hunky Dory. "Changes" hit the Billboard charts in the US and "Starman", released in April of '72, would go Top 10 in the UK. That summer Bowie would release Ziggy Stardust, a UK Top 5 album that still sits near the top of critics' lists of best all-time rock albums. And in September he'd release "John, I'm Only Dancing", a single with such homosexual overtones it was judged too risque for release in America.

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Bowie Bio Starman Chapter 18-Epilogue

Chapter 18: Bowie spends more time with his son and records "Cat People" and the UK#1 hit "Under Pressure" with Queen. He performs in  a Bretolt Brecht play, Baal, a Tony Scott film called The Hunger. and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence.
 He spends days with producer Nile Rodgers ( of Chic fame) listening to The Beatles' "Twist and Shout" and Henry Mancini. The Beatles' "Ahhhhhhh..." and Mancini's horns would both be heard in the song "Let's Dance".

Chapter 19. For the "Let's Dance" video, Bowie acts like he's playing the guitar solo by Stevie Ray Vaughan which eventually leads to SRV quitting the critically hailed tour.

 The next album, Tonight, is a disaster. Bowie's brother lies down on a railroad track and kills himself. The press is ruthless towards Bowie who records "Absolute Beginners" and the Mick Jagger duet "Dancing in the Street". (In the video they are obviously competing with eachother for attention: was there enough oxygen in the studio for the crew to even breathe?)


 Bowie performs at Live Aid. Then goes on the Glass Spider tour--another disaster.

Chapter 20 Bowie forms Tin Machine with Soupy Sales' sons and others.

 The Sound + Vision tour is difficult but towards the end he meets his future wife , the model Iman.

 More under-appreciated  albums follow.

Chapter 21 More forgettable albums. He celebrates his 50th birthday in concert sporting perfect teeth. A daughter is born. The Bowies move to NYC. Bowie has a heart attack and slows down.

Epilogue Bowie has moved away from the music scene. The best song of this century is the one he writes "off the cuff" in a  hilarious scene on Ricky Gervais' series "Extras"


Starman does what a biography should. It relates the life of the artist and how it is reflected in the art. But I wanted more about the artist and art and less about the business decisions involved. Trynka argues that Bowie eventually become a corporation so I understand his obligations.

Clearly Bowie was the first of the great rock chameleons. Elvis never became anybody but Elvis. Bowie changed his identity once a year in the 70's and inspired other pop chameleons like Madonna and Prince who still savor long careers. And Dammit, Bowie just wanted IT more.

Finally if the future of books is the e-book how long before we begin to see embedded music and video and more pictures? A biography like this one cries out for something more.

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Bowie Bio Starman Chapters 11-14 Jean Genie to Fame

In Chapter 10, Bowie tours America with the Spiders. And mountains of cocaine. They record "The Jean Genie"--a song about Iggy Pop --borrowing a famous riff from Muddy Waters ("I'm a Man"). Angie and Bowie are butting heads constantly.


In Chapter 11, Bowie records his cover album ( Pin -Ups) before Bryan Ferry finishes his cover album (These Foolish Things) and tapes a special for NBC that never airs...as his costume, seen above, is declared too provocative.
In Chapter 12 Bowie tries to "out Rolling Stone" the Rolling Stones with the album Diamond Dogs. He gets close with "Rebel Rebel" (note the drums echoing "Satisfaction")



After seeing the Main Ingredient in Chapter 12, Bowie tries to record a soul album. He name drops as many American images as possible in "Young Americans" including Nixon's resignation announced three days before the song was recorded.



Bowie and Lennon have a blast in a NYC studio, borrowing riffs from The Rascals "Foot Stompin" (really?) and Shirley and Company's current hit "Shame Shame Shame" which Bowie mishears during the jam as "Fame Fame Fame". The last minute addition to Young Americans is Bowie's first #1 hit in the US. He celebrates by performing on Soul Train.

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Bowie bio Starman Chapters 6 through 9

In Chapter 7 we learn Bowie's "All the Madmen" was inspired by his troubled half brother Terry who was institutionalized at Cane Hill, the same asylum that housed Charlie Chaplin's mother

Bowie marries outspoken American Angie and shocks bandmate John Cambridge by dancing with a bloke at the reception.



In Chapter 8 Bowie becomes obsessed with Iggy and the Stooges and a single called "Paralyzed" by outsider artist the Legendary Stardust Cowboy. He writes the Ziggy Stardust album.



In the next chapter 1972 sees Bowie's Ziggy Stardust album launching him to super-stardom. He offers to produce both the Stooges and Lou Reed.

He gives Mott the Hoople what may have been his best song of the entire era: "All the Young Dudes".



The bio gets bogged down by Bowie's business relationships and the comings and goings of band members. Important for a bio. Not as much for the music fan.

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Bowie Bio: Starman Chapters 3, 4 and 5

In Chapter 3 of Paul Trynka's Bowie bio Starman, we learn David will do anything and everything to market himself...even pretend to form a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long Haired Men.



In Chapter 4 Bowie goes through bands almost as quickly as lovers. He enters his Anthony Newley phase from 66-67, the Deram sessions, and records "The Laughing Gnome","Love You Till Tuesday" and "I Dig Everything", which sounds like an outtake from the Austin Powers soundtrack. His career stalls.



In Chapter 5, Bowie has almost given up on music. He tries theatre, dance and mime. He shoots some campy promo films including this one called "The Mask".


Among the songs recorded for the promo film: a rough, early version of "Space Oddity".



It occurs to me that in the next generation of e-books, bios like this one will have such youtube videos embedded in them. Am I ruining the book for you or making it more appetizing? Let me know.

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Bowie Bio: Starman Chapters 1 and 2

Finished the first two chapters of Paul Trynka's David Bowie bio Starman. Doesn't appear the author has any direct interviews with Bowie which is a shame. He uses this quote from Bowie's 2006 Nokia Recommenders "Sounds of My Universe" about the standout from a bagful of singles his dad brought home when Bowie was 8 years old:
Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti":

My heart nearly burst with excitement. I'd never heard anything even resembling this. It filled the room with energy and color and outrageous defiance. I heard God.

In Chapter Two we read about his association with agent Les Conn ("Conn's the name and con's the game") who signed up the 17 year old and his band ,The King Bees. Through Conn Bowie met Marc Bolan in 1964 (!) The King Bees reworked this "traditional folk song" --made famous by Huey Smith and his Clowns. The single made no impact on the charts despite the band's appearance on Ready Steady Go!



Look closely at the the writing credit. Conn's the name. More to come!

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Paul Trynka's Bowie Bio: "Starman"

Paul Trynka's Bowie biography Starman opens by describing this performance on Top of The Pops:

The fifteen-million-strong audience struggles to absorb this exotic, pansexual creature; in countless households, the kids are entranced in their thousands as parents sneer, shout, or walk out of the room...for scattered isolated kids around the UK, and soon on the American East Coast, and then on the West Coast, this was their day. The day of the outsider.

Trynka also notes the chorus of Starman borrows more than a few notes from "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".
All to say I've started reading Starman. I'll let you know whether it's worth a go ( at 500 pages no less!) every so often.

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#25 Dana Gillespie "You Just Got To Know My Mind" 1967

Well endowed in both figure and voice, former folkie Dana Gillespie rocks out on this Donovan penned tune with the help of Jimmy Page. "You Just Got to Know My Mind" contains the entire blueprint of The Bangles sound, though it's from such a rare album (Foolish Seasons) they could probably honestly claim to never have heard it.

Looking at the photo below, you can probably guess how she inspired another Donovan tune "Superlungs (My Supergirl)"

Dana Gillespie played Mary Magdalene in the first London production of Jesus Christ Superstar. She can be heard singing back up vocals on David Bowie's "It Ain't Easy" ( from Ziggy Stardust)
and she starred in some fairly dated movies (The People That Time Forgot comes to mind).






Dana is now an accomplished blues singer. She says "I believe the blues should be sung by an older person because it's about emotions and experience. I couldn't do justice to it when I was younger because my voice didn't have the edge it needed to convey the emotion, nor did I
have the first hand experience to sing about blue themes convincingly."
She's convinced plenty of people, filling stadiums on a tour through India and winning all kinds of polls among British blues fans.

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SOURCE CODE stars pick fave songs from childhood

The sci fi thriller SOURCE CODE, now available on DVD, has a new take on time travel. So 1001Songs asked the stars of the movie and director Duncan Jones ( AKA Zowie Bowie) to name songs that take them back in time... to happy childhood memories.
First off:

DUNCAN JONES
( aka Zowie Bowie)

Both Duncan Jones and his father, David Bowie, first hit the mainstream with artistic takes on lonely spacemen as their topics. Dad had "Space Oddity". Duncan had Moon. A "mesmerizing mindbender" that Vera Farmiga claims to have seen 8 times.

The song that takes him back isn't one of his dad's though. It was a UK hit from the 80's.

" There's a piece of music which I used in "Moon" and then used again in "Source Code". It's a song by a guy called Chesney Hawkes from the UK and I used it as an alarm clock ring in Moon and I used it as a cell phone ring in Source Code and that's kind of my Alfred Hitchcock shadow in the background so I'm hoping to use that in every film I can but that certainly puts me back in time"




VERA FARMIGA

Oscar nominee (for Up In The Air) Vera Farmiga grew up in a strict Ukranian home in New Jersey. She didn't learn to speak English until she was six.

Her childhood song?


"Oh God you wouldn't know it if I mentioned it.
It would be these kooky Ukranian folkloric songs of my childhood that my grandma used to sing.
There are recordings of it.
In fact I put in the film that I directed. (HIGHER GROUND out later this year)




JAKE GYLLENHAAL

My interview with the star of Source Code was cut off so sharply I didn't have time to ask. But he did tell KCRW's Liza Richardson recently that his pick would be "The Fox" by Burl Ives.

"My father used to sing this to me -- and I love Burl Ives just as a character, just as a musician -- and when I was a little kid we were robbed outside of our house. We were driving home, we pulled up and we were robbed and ever since I was always really nervous about falling asleep, you know, naturally, and so my dad would sing this to me before I'd go to bed."



MICHELLE MONAGHAN

Jake's romantic interest in Source Code is Iowa native Michelle Monaghan. And like most people from Iowa, she's incredibly kind. You may have seen her in Mission Impossible III or Gone Baby Gone

Michelle's childhood tune? A #1 country song from 1987.

"Oh my gosh any kind of country music. "Fishin' in the Dark" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Yeah that song takes me back. That's a good song. Something that I played and my parents played a lot."





Surprised Duncan Jones didn't name one of his dad's tunes? He's learned not to favor one over the other. He told 1001Songs "if I picked one favorite song, Dad would be furious".

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